Another weird incident, this time in Sunlit Tides. One of my sim's oldest friends is Gretchen Laird, they met her first week there, I assume she's an elder since she's retired; they often chat by phone but otherwise it's just chance meetings at public places. About three sim-weeks ago she called and asked for a date, they met in the rain at a public pool and chatted a while, til my sim was soaked and hungry and went home. I kept watching Gretchen to see where she went, but she just stood there for a half hour (real time) then went swimming; four sim-hours later she is still swimming, I got bored and went to see what my sim was up to (I'm also watching TV in RL). A couple of sim-weeks later my sim gets engaged (after an "on again, off again" relationship with one of her suitors), and a few days later Gretchen asks her out again; it's an old friend, nothing romantic, so why not. She gets to the meeting place around 10PM, after an arduous climb up the mountain to the Lair, Gretchen is standing on the path about halfway around the mountain from the entrance, with a book on the ground beside her (that's odd). They chat, Gretchen flirts, my sim doesn't respond, til 2AM, when cold and hunger drive my sim home. I continue watching Gretchen, why pick this spot? is she a criminal? She stood there motionless for a half hour, then walked over and picked up the book, read for maybe five seconds, put the book down, and walked a few feet away. She indicated she was hungry, swayed on her feet as if utterly exhausted, then rubbed her hands together and blew on them (it's so cold you could see her breath), eventually going back to pick up her book and read a few seconds again. She continues all these actions, also occasionally taking a book from inventory and reading it a few seconds then putting it back in inventory, until 9AM! She then walked around to the entrance of the Lair, where Alana had just emerged, and talked to her for an hour; Alana left, Gretchen walked back around to where she had been, and continued all those previous actions til around 2PM (thus she had been there at least 16 hours!) when she wandered down the mountain to the road and hailed a cab. I didn't get to see where she went because at 3PM my sim catches the car pool and the game instantly shifted focus to that.

I had saved while watching Gretchen at 3AM, but when I load that save it opens briefly where she had been but she isn't there and the focus shifts immediately to my sim.

My sim felt badly about the plight of her old friend; was she always cold and hungry? where did she live? I scrolled all around the map and found no evidence of "Gretchen Laird" in any household. So my sim invited her over and offered to let her move in, she can stay in the spare bedroom and get her life in order. And I can now snoop on her, lol. She's not an elder, she's perhaps 20% into her adult years; her wish is to be a surgeon, and wants to learn logic; so I bought her books and sent her to the hospital to get started on her career (and by massive coincidence, her boss is my fiancee), also bought her a car so she would stop using mine. And apparently she flirts all the time because she's a Hopeless Romantic. But I've still no idea who she is or where she came from. Her biography says she is a member of the Arnott household, which shows "no lot, no house" and no other members. So I go online and read several sites' data about Sunlit Tides, including full lists of playable characters, NPCs, homeless, and service people; nowhere is there any mention of Gretchen Laird or an Arnott household. An immigrant? She was present when I first started playing this world with my current character, immigration wasn't open yet. A true conundrum, Sims3 meets Twilight Zone, but an interesting subplot to this sim's life in Sunlit Tides.

The Arnott household is a homeless/role sim household. None of them are related to anybody. As you saw, they can be converted to playable sims by moving them into an active (or inactive playable) household, but usually they're very underdeveloped and you might consider tweakin them with like Master Controller or cheats. Gretchen actually sounds rather more developed than some of the homeless sims I've encountered.

Thank you. Did you deduce this from experience or find a list somewhere? One of my first characters in the game, about a million years ago, chatted with the firefighter who came to her house (I think every one of my characters has had a house fire their first week in the world), they eventually married and the firefighter became a renowned orchestra conductor; I always mention this whenever someone complains of no available romantic partners mid way through a world. That's probably how I met Gretchen, I thought she was old because she was retired and had white hair in a huge bouffant hairdo ....which it turns out is a weird white cap she wears. And explains why she didn't go home after our date - she had no home. But my sim will enjoy supporting her for a while, and playing matchmaker.